turkic slaves, Afrasibabian ceramics and many other goods, moved through the Kara-Kum and Kyzyl deserts, the boundless steppes of Sary-Arka; passed over theridges of the Pamirs and Tien-Shan, the Altai and the Karatau Mountains.
    On the way of the caravans there were settlements and towns - Merv and Bukhara. Samarkand and Urgench, Otrar and Chimkent, Taraz and Balasagun, Sauran and Talgar. But the beginning of the contacts and exchanges goes back to the third-second millennia b.c.
    These relations were established due to exploitation of lazurite in the Badakshan Mountains and nephrite - upstream the Yarkend-Darya in the Khotan area.
    Lazurite, extracted in Badakhshan, was exported to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia. Egypt and Syria. In the middle of the first millenium a.d. lazurite appeared in China. At the same time with the Lazurite Route, which connected Central Asia and the Middle East with the Mediterranean area and India, these existed the Nephrite Route. connecting eastern Turkestan with China. In the middle of the first millenium b.c. the Steppe Route began to operate: from the Black Sea area to the Don banks, to the land of the Savromats in the south ofpre-LJral region and further - to the Altai, the land of the Agrippies, who inhabited the Upper Irtish and Zaisan lake areas.
    Export of Chinese silk to other countries, including western countries, began in the fourth - fifth centuries b.c.
    Export of precious Chinese silk was greatly promoted by nomadic tribes of Saks and Scythians, who provided with these wonderful goods the regions of Central Asia and Mediterranean countries. At that very time silk was brought to India and the majority of investigators suppose, that the Silk Route at that time only began to originate and develop into the trade highway.
    It was but in the middle of the second century b.c. that the Silk Route began to function as a regular diplomatic and commercial artery. This started in 138 b.c., when Prince Zhang-Jian, sent on his journey by the Emperor Wu-di, set out from the capital of Han to the unknown western countries, escorted by embassy caravan. Zhang-Jian returned only 13 years later.
    Blazing of the new trails was tightly connected with the process of urbanization. which began first in the southern regions of Central Asia and then spread to central and neigbouring northern and steppe regions.
    Therefore, it is thougt to be expedient to distinguish three main routes lying across the territory of Central Asia and: southern, central and northern.
    The southern route started from the town of Amul on the Oksa river and then, dividing into three branches, ran in different directions: first-via Bukhara, Kasan, Kerki, Termez. Baktri; second - via Bukhara, Samarkand, Shakhrisabz, Kerki, over mountain pass Akrobat - to Termez, Baktri; third - through Bukhara, Samarkand. Uzunkir. Daratepe, Budrach, Haitabadtepe, Termez - to Baktri.
    The central route lay throug Amul on the river Oksa to Paikend, Bukhara, Samarkand, Dizak. Zaomin, Zamgar, Hadjistan, Turmukhan, Bab, Akhisket. Osh. Uzgend and further over mountain passes to Kashgar.
    The northern route struck via Amul to Bekhara, Dimas, Tavavis, Karmana. Dabusia. Rabidjian, Zarman, Samarkand, Abarket, Rabad, Saeda, Harkana, Dizak. Leaving Dizak, it then divided into two branches: from Zaoman to Hawas, Harashkat, across the river Yaksart, to Benaket, Binket; via Hussein and Humeid weiis to Vankend. Undjaket, Chinanchiket and further to Shutukert, where it joined the southern branch and led to Binket, the capital jf Shash.
    In the sixth - seventh centuries a.d. the route, passing through China to the west via Semirechie and southern Kazakhstan, became the busiest one, although that, lying through Fergana, was shorter and more conventent. And in the seventh century a.d. the way via Fergana became dangerous because of internecine dissension.
    Thirdly, wealhy Turkic kagans became large-scale consumers of foreign goods.
    Thus, the route became the major jne and it was there, that important embassy and trade caravans passed in the seventh-fourteenth centuries a.d.
    In the sixth - eighth centuries the main route was that, leading from Syria, through Iran, Central Asia, southern Kazakhstan, the Talas and Chu valleys, Issyk-Kul area to eastern Turkestan. This route had a branch, connecting Byzantium via Derbent, pre-Caspian steppes, Mangyshlak and the pre-Aral region, with southern Kazakhstan, where it joined the main route.
    Later, in the ninth-twelfth centuries a.d., this branch wasn't as widely used as that. However, in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries the significance of this branch increased again. Very often the state of political affairs on the continent determined the choice of the route not only for envoys and merchants, but also for other travelling people.
    What did southern Kazakhstan and Semirechie regions represent at the time of their involvement into the Silk Route activity? From time immemorial this area was known for unique culture, which had been created for ages by nomadic and settled tribes. Interaction and mutual enrichment of nomadic and settled cultures have shown an amazing effect, created by the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
    In the fourth-third centuries b.c. this was the land of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of the Saks, whose highly developed culture is known the archaelogical excavations of numerous burial mounds, such as Besshatir, Issyk, Teghisken, Uigarak.
    In the second century b.c. - the begining of the first millenium a.d. there were ancient states of Kangui andUsun on the territory of Kazakhstan, by that time the Silk Route became a busy highway, promouting penetration of Roman glass and coins, Chinese silk, mirrors and varnishes, European fibulas and various stone-signets from the Sassanian empire.
    In the second half of the fourth century a.d. Semirechie and southern Kazakhstan joined the powerful Turkic Kaganat - great nomadic empire, extending from Korea to the Black Sea. By the end of the sixth century it broke up into two parts - eastern Turkic and western Turkic Kaganats. It was at time, that this section of the Silk Route had exerted a great influence on the development of urban and feudal culturesof Semirechie and Southern Kazakhstan, in the Semirechie region there emerged a number of towns, while in southern Kazakhstan it gave growth to those towns, which lay on the Silk Route or maintained commercial relations with it.
    Among them the largest were Suyab, Taraz and the town on the White river bank. which was later called Ispidjab.